Jussie Smollett Gets Testy, Arrogant on the Stand Over Instagram Messages, Story Changes
Even the judge had to scold him: “Please, please. It’s the same for all witnesses, it’s not personal to you. The lawyer asks questions, you answer them.”
Former Empire actor Jussie Smollett should not have taken the stand in his own defense against accusations he staged a hate crime against himself.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb got under Smollett’s skin. The reasonable line of questioning caused Smollett to reveal a high level of arrogance of someone who thinks he is untouchable.
Smollett spent Monday on the stand crying, making him sound like a scorned lover and friend of Abimbola Osundario.
Smollett claimed he had a sexual and somewhat professional relationship with Abimbola. He insisted he did not have anything to do with Olabinjo, the other Osundario brother.
Webb made sure Smollett did not stray by only asking questions related to the incident. He also wanted to know why Smollett never gave the police a DNA sample or phone records. Smollett claimed privacy, but the prosecution argued it’s because Smollett did not want to implicate himself.
Surveillance Videos
Webb wanted to know why cameras caught Smollett driving around with both brothers three times around the area of the alleged hate crime. The prosecution alleged the videos prove the three of them went on a “dry run” of the crime in those videos.
Smollett said he picked up the brothers since “Ubers were getting crazy.” He said he was texting about an interview, smoking weed, and feeling weird about Olabinjo in the car.
The car appeared around the intersection again because “It was easier to just use the interview as a reason ‘well now we can’t really work out so I’ll drive you back.’”
Instagram Messages
Then Webb brought up Instagram direct messages between Abimbola and Smollett. Webb said Smollett provided updates to Abimbola on his delayed flight back to Chicago so they could adjust their schedule.
Smollett explained the responses were to his public Instagram story where he complained about his delayed flight. But then he told Webb he wanted to “check in and let Osundario know his flight was delayed and he wouldn’t be available to workout that night as scheduled.”
Smollett said: “There was no fake attack. There was no update to him, there was an update to my over 5 million followers.”
LOL. Webb pointed out the message was a private one to Abimbola. Because, um, when you respond to someone’s Instagram story it sends as a private message.
Yeah, Smollett tried to steer the conversation away from the content because Webb read messages with the N-word.
Webb: I don't intend to do that sort.. you can read your messages aloud.
Smollett then reads his own message— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) December 7, 2021
'look at me, I'm older, I do not understand instagram…" Special Prosecutor Dan Webbs tells Smollett and the court in a lighter moment in court — Smollett testifying about private Insta messages on night of alleged attack
— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) December 7, 2021
It’s Not Fair!
Smollett hated Webb’s questioning. He tried to cry to Judge James Linn who put the failing actor in his place:
It was clear that Webb had punctured a nerve with Smollett. After the actor tried to cast doubt on Abimbola’s testimony by claiming the two had been in a sexual relationship, Webb put the focus back on Smollett, pressing him in an intense series of back-and-forth exchanges about the specific details of the night in question. These included whether Smollett thought a Walgreens was open for 24 hours, why he was looking for eggs in the middle of the night, whether or not he’d asked Abimbola about a workout that night, and on and on until the actor seemed to hit a breaking point.
“I’m just concerned about answering yes or no,” Smollett told Judge James Linn after Webb began to strike one of his responses as “non-responsive.”
“Please, please,” Linn told him. “It’s the same for all witnesses, it’s not personal to you. The lawyer asks questions, you answer them.”
Story Changes
Smollett told police white men attacked him. Then he changed he described the men as “pale” because he wanted to be responsible:
“I didn’t want to make the assumption that they were white. So I said, ‘Let me change that and just say that they were pale-skinned,’ ” he said, adding, “They could’ve been a white person, they could have been a pale someone else.”
Asked whether he called them white so the attack would get more attention, he fired back, “You’d have to ask someone who actually did a fake hate crime.”
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Comments
Is it too late to add ‘Bad Acting’ to the charges against Smollett?
Juicy, Juicy, Juicy
Cary Grant, he’s not
He’s not even Alec Baldwin. Neither can fake crying very well.
Smollet: I’m changing my story.
Hobson: I’ll alert the media.
Why do you think he tried to pull this crap?
If he were an actually good actor he would already have made it. The fact that he tried this laughable bullshit to raise his profile tells you exactly how confident he is in his abilities.
Maybe he doesn’t know how bad he is and feels entitled to more than he’s actually earned.
Or maybe he doesn’t care if he deserves anything, he just wants more, whatever it takes.
It’s hard to tell what’s going through this guy’s mind right now except terror of prison.
From what I heard at the beginning of all this is that he pulled this hoax in order to get (1) better personnel security from the Empire production team because he was unhappy a to how they were dealing with hate mail and (2) in an attempt to leverage it into a hefty pay raise.
Now whether any of those are true I don’t know. But that’s what I heard as to why he allegedly pulled this hoax.
Smollett sent “hate mail” to himself, including the requisite “white powder.” That’s a serious federal crime, yet unprosecuted.
Yeah, like Merrick Garland doesn’t have to wash his hair instead.
‘Why do you think he tried to pull this crap?’
Cause he likes to pull stuff?
Well, it’s the trifecta of victimhood, isn’t it?
He’s black.
He’s gay.
He’s progressive.
His imaginary attackers hated him for at least one… but let’s say all of these things.
This would be like Experian Booooost for his social intersectionality score!
Let me look up the bad acting statute
Says if actor comes up with own lines, and does his own directing they have blanket immunity from the charges because the vast majority of actors suck at directing and writing.
Not at least, in our court of public opinion…
I think it is ore a case of clinical delusion disorder. He isn’t much, but he is clearly all that he thinks about.
I can see how Jussie mistook the two Nigerians for pale skinned white dudes. They look like pale skinned white dudes to me too, I’m sure people from Nigeria often go out early in the morning when it’s 30 below zero. And it’s obvious the cold weather altered their voices to make them sound like white dudes as well. So all around very believable alibi.
All right, so the attacker wasn’t “white”, he was “pale skinned.”
Now, in what universe is either one of the Osundario brothers “pale skinned?”
He’s still insisting that his attacker weren’t the Nigerian brothers.
In a blind universe. LOL
Webb made sure Smollett did not stray by only asking questions related to the incident. He also wanted to know why Smollett never gave the police a DNA sample or phone records. Smollett claimed privacy, but the prosecution argued it’s because Smollett did not want to implicate himself.
I am not in the least sympathetic to Smollet, who is rather obviously guilty of what he’s charged with. But, as in the RIttenhouse case, when Kyle should never have been brought to trial or even charged, this sounds like like a 5th amendment violation, as when the prosecutor implied he remained silent because he was guilty.
In lots of other trials DNA and phone records are subpoenaed. Why not in this case?
Nowhere near the same thing… Not even close…
Big big big difference between “not talking to the police when you are charged with a crime” and “not providing relevant evidence when you called the police and reported a (allegedly) fake hate crime.”.
Especially when reporting that (allegedly) fake hate crime is what he is now charged with. At the time he was refusing to cooperate, he was the (alleged) victim, not a suspect.
“… caused Smollett to reveal a high level of arrogance of someone who thinks he is untouchable.”
Of course, he is untouchable. His mom and aunt are good friend’s of HeelsUp, and another of their friends worked under the First Wookie.
Wouldn’t YOU feel touchable?
Ah! Arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you!
-Londo Mollari
A wise man and greatly missed. It’s really too bad what happened to him after the coronation.
Supposedly they’re going to remake it.
All signs so far point to it being an unbelievable woke disaster.
But they can’t take away the original.
Jesse is obviously changing is profession from ACTOR to Stand-Up Comic because his defense is a joke.
Or he’ll now play an extra. How the mighty have fallen.
Any pot created for how long the jury will be out?
I am gay, and was once attacked as I left a gay bar. And I am familiar with Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. So when it was first reported I jumped into the case and very quickly determined that Smollett was lying. The only surprise has been how long it’s taken to bring the POS to justice. Even in Chicago, it’s an outlier.
What made me genuinely angry is that his hijinks make it harder for actual victims of anti-gay assaults. Trust me, folks, those happen. I wasn’t injured, but it was unnerving. Others have fared worse. Even if he’s convicted, the sentence will be too light. He’s on trial for misdemeanors.
I wonder if the feds will follow up by prosecuting him for mailing that white powder to himself. That’s serious felony territory, and maybe the feds held back until the local case concludes? I am vindictive about this, and want him to suffer.
“What made me genuinely angry is that his hijinks make it harder for actual victims of anti-gay assaults.”
Yes, and it should make anyone angry who cares about that.
Appreciate your insight RandonCrank.
I can’t imagine that the Merrick Garland Justice Department would ever prosecute. FIB and DOJ are just incredibly political these days. Remember who rushed out to his defense within hours after the alleged attack.
You make a strong point, but it ain’t over ’til it’s over.
This case has an odor of fraud to it that is overwhelming
So Rittenhouse cries on the stand and LeBron immediately called them “crocodile tears” but is oddly silent when Smollett does the same thing. What a hypocrite.
Why did Jussie do it? Let’s all take a deep breath and wait for Kamala Harris to determine the root cause.
This is guesswork. Mine is that he hoped to raise his profile — to get more acting roles, for more money — by “branding” himself as a “brave survivor” of a bias crime. Slight problem: Too god damn stupid to pull it off. If that guy’s I.Q. is even 100, he probably cheated on the test. There’s no liar quite as laughable as a stupid one.
Oh, and a “black Cary Grant?” The chipmunk doesn’t have the jawline, let alone 0.1% of the class. Jussie is mentally ill. That future “where are they now?” show will have to track him down to a tent under a freeway overpass. I tend to feel sorry for some of those derelicts, but I won’t in his case. Smollett will land hard.
Oh, the Land of Lori-Appropriating-a-name Lightfoot!
Fivehead Lightfoot, whom always looks as if she just witnessed the appearance of a snapping dog at the door of an entrance to a house in a neighborhood far from her own on the night of October 31 whilst holding a Dollar General bag with one torn handle hole and the other stretched precariously thin, is as tone-deaf and clueless as any of her fellow travelers; and to celebrate her or Juicy’s Mullet and their ineptitude is an affront to your, mine and all our sensibilities!
PERFECTION!
In 5 years he can be in a Where Are They Now segment of a low rated cable station.
I’m hopeful the answer is the state penitentiary at Joliet (they a wicked pepper steak there on Wednesday nights)
or in House of Representatives, or Senate of fed or state! corruption is BIG BUSINESS AND PAYS WELL!
He can have a reserved spot on the front page of deadoralive.com.
Hey LeBron!!! Who’s fake crying now????
Smollette’s behavior on the witness stand will be the cherry on the frosting of the DA’s cake. He has disabused the jurors of any possible inclinations they may have had to vote ‘not guilty’. His hubris was in full view. And I bet it hurts his acting career. As it should.
I doubt that he’ll ever do any time. He’ll likely be sentenced to community service, which will be met by making a PSA about the dangers of white racism.
If the jury convicts him, he will face a possible federal indictment for that “white powder” letter — a much more serious crime — and Chicago’s civil action to recover the cost of its investigation. I’m not sure, and actually doubt, that they are directly linked, but if the jury goes brain dead and he’s acquitted this week, then it’s hard to imagine the other cases going anywhere. But if he’s convicted, it could be the least of his worries.